Once again, I have cut my hair off. However, this time I have done it in a more stylish way. I decided that I wanted a pompadour, and this has turned out to be more flexible than last time when I just shaved all my hair off. And it looks much better.
The new do
Giffy Jeans
I recently got my first pair of raw denim selvedge jeans from Self Edge Denim on Valencia and they even hemmed them up for me so now I finally get to wear them around. The pair I got were some 3sixteens, and were actually these jeans here. They are quite stretchy, so I doubt very much that they are 100% cotton, but it is not clear what they are made of. The most my research on Cone’s S-Gene Denim has turned up, is that maybe it is a blend of 92% ring spun cotton, 7% polyester and 1% Elastane. 100% cotton jeans for women are so very rare these days. Continue reading
My Cochleanthes amazonica is producing an inflorescence for what is only the second time in over 5 years. I suspect that I have not been keeping it humid enough, because that is difficult to achieve here (especially in the summers). In fact, Chochleanthes are supposed to bloom more frequently in the summer, but both times mine has produced an inflorescence it has been wintertime (rainy season). Continue reading
Doc on the first hanging belay on Olive Oil
This week, Doc and I went to Las Vegas because of a gig out there (I agreed because I wanted an excuse to climb in Red Rocks), and not long after we arrived on Tuesday, we decided to get married. We made it official and were legally married by Thursday.
We had talked about our ideal marriage a lot; that it would be cheap and that we wouldn’t inconvenience anybody by asking for gifts or even have a big wedding ceremony, so that is why we both knew that we didn’t need to make a big deal about it. Even so, I couldn’t be happier!
And of course, we celebrated by climbing in Red Rocks afterwards! Doc climbed his first multi pitch (Olive Oil on Rose Tower, 6 pitches, 5.7) during that trip. There was a spooky traverse because it had high exposure, but other than that it was a really easy climb with huge juggy sandstone holds. I would highly recommend this and the other classic Red Rocks climbs.
Doc wearing his wedding tuxedo tee, getting ready to climb
While we were climbing Olive Oil, George and Joanne Urioste were making a first ascent on another formation nearby, just across the way. This is the same couple that made many of the first ascents in the Red Rocks guidebook, including Olive Oil!
We also checked out Bonnie Springs Ranch, a sort of tourist trap built out of an old 1860′s ranch that has performers doing shootouts and hangings etc. Bonnie Springs is only about 5 miles away from Red Rocks, so it wasn’t out of the way, and even that was tons of fun. It was kitsch but not too bad, just enough to be fun and light-hearted.
Lots of the rocks looked like bacon
Everywhere in the Blue Diamond area, we kept seeing signs saying not to feed the wild horses or burros, which of course made me super excited to see wild horses or burros. Alas, we never did.
Now Doc and I are back in San Francisco at last, chilling and blogging. Except now, we are chilling and blogging while married.
Sunset over Calico Rocks
Who were the valkyries?
Jump to an article in my Norse Backstory series:
1) Where did trolls come from?
2) Whatever are “Runes”?
3) Who were the valkyries?
Ahh, the mysterious raven-women. After each battle, about half of the heroes slain would go to feast forever with Odin in his hall called Valhalla, while the other half of slain heroes would go to feast forever with Frejya in her hall called Sessrúmnir. Slain heroes that were fighting because they just absolutely loved fighting, and/or were Berserks went to Valhalla. Slain heroes that were fighting to defend something, such as land or loved ones, went to Sessrúmnir. If your loved one (husband, wife, lover, etc) went to Sessrúmnir, then you were allowed to join them in Frejya’s hall after you died, too. However, only the bloodthirsty Berserks could ever get into Odin’s hall. Continue reading
Jump to an article in my Norse Backstory series:
1) Where did trolls come from?
2) Whatever are “Runes”?
3) Who were the valkyries?
Runes are a family of linguistically-related lettering systems, which were used by Germanic peoples. There are several rune “alphabets,” changing over time and geography. The particular set of runes that I want to talk to you about, however, is the Elder Futhark. Similar to how the “alphabet” is so called for its first two letters: “alpha,” “beta,”; the futhark is so-named for its first six letters: “F,” “U,” “Th,” “A,” “R,” “K.” The futhark runic systems were the ones primarily used in the Scandinavian areas. Runes were used for writing things down, but also for magic. Each rune has a magic of its own.
Lokasonarnir: the Hound and the Wyrm. A runestone about the hound crying out, and the wyrm answering those cries. On either side of the runic inscription are bindrunes.
It is said that the runes were either first invented or discovered by Odin of the Aesir. In prehistoric times, Odin set out on a quest to learn as much about the universe as he could. He gave one of his eyes to the Jotun known as Mimir the Wise, in exchange for Continue reading
You can’t, you won’t, and you don’t stop cooking!
I find that the autumn crops and flavours are my favourite, so once a year I let myself get caught up in an autumn cooking frenzy. It is a fun seasonal ritual to have, plus I really like to eat the things I make. Last year I made eggnog and pumpkin pie (from a pumpkin), the year before I made purple yam pie, et cetera.
Today, Doc and I both ended up spending the entire day in the kitchen. Doc made us breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while I made a bunch of weird seasonal things that were not for eating straight away. Whenever we weren’t cooking, we were cleaning the kitchen. Know that one of Doc’s meals included a ghost pepper grilled cheese sandwich with a plum and shallot salad. So he doesn’t mess around, either. Continue reading
This series is an attempt to provide some backstory for my 2013 24-Hour Comic.
Jump to an article in my Norse Backstory series:
1) Where did trolls come from?
2) Whatever are “Runes”?
3) Who were the valkyries?
Where did trolls come from?
That is a very good question, and I am very glad you asked it!
One day, while Thor and Loki were hiking through the wilderness, they came upon the remains of a fire. In the center of the char, was a cooked heart. Loki, who was very hungry, picked the heart out of the ashes.
“Hey, check it out! It’s still good!” He exclaimed, looking it over and brushing it off.
“Aw, gross, man. Don’t eat that.” Thor pleaded weakly, knowing that Loki will eat everything in sight if given the opportunity, and therefore any of his protests about how gross something is are usually futile. Continue reading
This morning I finished my second 24 hour comic. Yet again Mission Comics hosted the event, and did a great job.
Page 7 of my 2013 24-hour comic, in which a bear dies. The bear was everybody’s favourite character for some reason, and it is probably not a good sign that s/he died so early on in the book. “Why did you make the bear so cute only to have it die??” It’s just a bear guys, get over it. Plus it was trying to kill the protagonist.
I put a lot more time into writing the story for this one (compared to my 24 hour comic last year), and so I did not have enough time to watercolor it this year. I would still like to watercolor it, so maybe I will still get around to it sometime.
Predictably, I set my comic in a Nordic fairytale landscape. I decided to set it in very early prehistoric Scandinavia. I managed to feature: draug, trolls, a gnome, a nixie, and Ull. I will upload it as soon as I get it scanned.
Being prehistoric, you will see no swords no shields no helms, no nothing metal. Flint knives and spears with leather/fur clothes all around. Errbody has spears. Except for when their spears break, which happens more frequently than you might expect. There is also a carved-bone comb.
I slept for 7 hours as soon as I finished and then I couldn’t sleep any more no matter how much I wanted to, but I am still exhausted from staying up for 24 hours.
Lately I’ve been tormenting Doc by talking about selkies every chance I get. You would think he’d be grateful that I’ve (almost) stopped going on about trolls, but this is not the case.
During a selkie rampage, I drew this:
I figure, if you have the ability to turn into a seal, a leopard seal would be the way to go.
But then! I got invited to hang out with Gail and say good-bye to her before she leaves for Antarctica for 18 months. She told me that she will get to see penguins and leopard seals and go ice climbing… I told her, “hold that thought!” and then gave her this drawing as a going-away gift. To her, it is a leopard seal. To me, it is a selkie.
